Guau. I just found out tonight I live under a block from where Kerouac lived in 1952 for some months and composed some of his more exotic poetry. Also, Burroughs, that junky, queer sage, lived for some years (and accidentally murdered his wife in an amphetamine induced bout of William Tell using a pistol in place of a bow and arrow).
Interestin' ain't it????
And there's no memorials, nothing. Just an 80s or maybe 90s shit housing thing there. Nothing. Damn, Mexico has some amazing surprises left.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Uxmal y Edzna
The northern Yucatan peninsula is a giant plate of limestone covered with a five o'clock shadow of resilient and damn near impenetrable scrub. However, in that endless sea of green and solid humidity, one cannot help but trip over the innummerable pre-Columbian pyramids. Now when I was in school studying ancient civilizations, I recall hearing about a few notable Mexican sites, as though civilization here was an accident chanced upon by a few. But one trip to the Yucatan made me realize just how ignorant I had been. EVERY town here has some pile of rocks somewhere that was once the home of thousands of people with all the trappings of the other bronze age peoples 'over there', but certainly with there own idiosycrisies too.
What follows are pictures of two of my favorite sites, slightly more than piles of rocks.
Uxmal is one of two UNESCO heritage sites in the Yucatan. It's a pretty amazing complex. that I'm sure at one time (long before even the Spanish winos and outcasts came) also supported a vast city of more biodegradable buidlings. Like Roman sites, it's a collage of idealized spaces with uncertain relationships to one another but incredible confidence at the local level...
The most well known feature its its piramide mayor, which, apparently unique in Mayan culture, features filleted (or curved for those who don't know ACAD intimately) tapered corners. It is also an uncanny aesthetic similarity to Sant'Elia's works some millenia later.
And, a feature more quotidian to pre-Colombian Mexican architecture in general, an impossible staircase that would make not only my mother cringe with apprehensive pain...
Note too that this is an ACUTISIMO escalera as well. Oh, and that gang up top apparently works at the site and was just bidding thier time with a little fun and exercise (as the stairs are strictly, UNESCO prohibited for climbing here). But who can tell, as none of the officials at any of these sites wear brown shirt and green pants, nor Dudley Do-Right hats either.
And WOW what a sky. Apparently, it's like this, either HOT and HUMID or dumping rain, the whole year round (except May, when it doesn't rain).
Note too the long and composite building, the colonade, which with a few superficial adjustments would look right at home on the Forum.
Speaking of Classical References, it's really incredible how two cultures (two I'm familair with anyway) removed by time and miles, could create incredibly similar architectures at the diagrammatic level. I mean, just look at that cornice! But also, the incredbile horizontality of that LIFTED volume is one of the few architectural cultures I know of that tries to bridge an appreciation for the agricultural landscape (horizontal) and the godly heavens (vertical).
And while on the note of incredible idiosyncratic similarities, note how the corbled arch below is damn near exactly the same as that of the Myceaneans. Incredible that our individual, seperate tendencies quite often lead to casi the same solution.
But, not to say blasphemy to the Modernist doctrine I was nutured on, I've started to see how decoration is not mearely for superficial satisfaction but, I believe when practiced in earnest, for communication in anthropomorphic form with whatever we see when we look into the endless abyss (in this case, the jungle aforementioned).
Speaking of anthropomorphism, I can't help but think of Hejduk, especially in Berlin (again in the 'old world') when I see something like this.
But then there are some really fuctional solutions too, like the steps/bleachers below (a pure combintation of the two I never saw at any high school football field)
Even if they were to watch something as abstract, certainly not 'silly', as a ball game...
And this guy had to put in his two cents:
Another thing you cannot help but trip over in the Yucatan, at least where the jungle is cleared for some prime sun bathing on piles of rocks.
On the way from Uxmal to Edzna, I found myself eerily at home...or at least strangely familiar with driving through the mid-American landscape.
Usually in the Yucatan, you see jungle and some villages filled with abborotes and huts like those shown in a previous post, but here I saw vast fields of produce and little prairie houses set back from the road (obviously a fundamental desire of certain building culture distinct from that inherited by the descendents of the Mediterranean and the Mayans, whose decendents build in much the same way as the Tuscans or the early New English). The mirage was only exacerbated by the apperance of two guerros in a little village otheriwse filled by people one wouldn't be so surprised to see in Mexican villages. They were also wearing overalls, something I haven't worn, or really seen, since I was 5 I think and Osh-Kosh-Begosh was still standard vocabulary with my mom in JCPenny. Anyhow, passing by one of these modern agricultural monliths and one of the Langfelsish little farmhouses mentioned above, I saw an ancient old ford pulling from a drive FULL of little blond kiddies and two guerros afront, and I knew I was no longer dreaming. So next abborotes me and my commrade stopped for some snacks and refreshment and I asked a local what was the deal down the road and here's the story: in the 1930s, there were all kinds of people who had reasons to leave Germany, and some of those were the Menonites, who's only interest in orders, new or old, was that of a well ployed field and a well worn family bible.
And then there's Edzna, another city of ancient glory now lost to the Green Ocean but recently uncovered....
We had that place pretty much all to ourselves, only 40 minutes from the city of Campeche. Damn, I love looking around in Mexico. especially now that both the Swine Flu and tourism have slowed damn near to a halt.
\
Edzna is also a great site, very unique. Look at those curves to the left! And all those little rooms on the face! Obviously there must have been some crazy light shows for the crowd in the Zocalo back in the day, as there are even now (only now for the tourists, and for a fee).
Pero, speaking of such events, I couldn't help but notice at Edzna the opposite/facing staircase/bleachers resmbled the Nurmberg Zepplin fields. I guess power generally manifests itself in casi the same ways in all kinds of places and times.
But we all know that shit ain't sustainable anymore.
What follows are pictures of two of my favorite sites, slightly more than piles of rocks.
Uxmal is one of two UNESCO heritage sites in the Yucatan. It's a pretty amazing complex. that I'm sure at one time (long before even the Spanish winos and outcasts came) also supported a vast city of more biodegradable buidlings. Like Roman sites, it's a collage of idealized spaces with uncertain relationships to one another but incredible confidence at the local level...
The most well known feature its its piramide mayor, which, apparently unique in Mayan culture, features filleted (or curved for those who don't know ACAD intimately) tapered corners. It is also an uncanny aesthetic similarity to Sant'Elia's works some millenia later.
And, a feature more quotidian to pre-Colombian Mexican architecture in general, an impossible staircase that would make not only my mother cringe with apprehensive pain...
Note too that this is an ACUTISIMO escalera as well. Oh, and that gang up top apparently works at the site and was just bidding thier time with a little fun and exercise (as the stairs are strictly, UNESCO prohibited for climbing here). But who can tell, as none of the officials at any of these sites wear brown shirt and green pants, nor Dudley Do-Right hats either.
And WOW what a sky. Apparently, it's like this, either HOT and HUMID or dumping rain, the whole year round (except May, when it doesn't rain).
Note too the long and composite building, the colonade, which with a few superficial adjustments would look right at home on the Forum.
Speaking of Classical References, it's really incredible how two cultures (two I'm familair with anyway) removed by time and miles, could create incredibly similar architectures at the diagrammatic level. I mean, just look at that cornice! But also, the incredbile horizontality of that LIFTED volume is one of the few architectural cultures I know of that tries to bridge an appreciation for the agricultural landscape (horizontal) and the godly heavens (vertical).And while on the note of incredible idiosyncratic similarities, note how the corbled arch below is damn near exactly the same as that of the Myceaneans. Incredible that our individual, seperate tendencies quite often lead to casi the same solution.
But, not to say blasphemy to the Modernist doctrine I was nutured on, I've started to see how decoration is not mearely for superficial satisfaction but, I believe when practiced in earnest, for communication in anthropomorphic form with whatever we see when we look into the endless abyss (in this case, the jungle aforementioned).
Speaking of anthropomorphism, I can't help but think of Hejduk, especially in Berlin (again in the 'old world') when I see something like this.
But then there are some really fuctional solutions too, like the steps/bleachers below (a pure combintation of the two I never saw at any high school football field)
Even if they were to watch something as abstract, certainly not 'silly', as a ball game...
And this guy had to put in his two cents:
Another thing you cannot help but trip over in the Yucatan, at least where the jungle is cleared for some prime sun bathing on piles of rocks.
On the way from Uxmal to Edzna, I found myself eerily at home...or at least strangely familiar with driving through the mid-American landscape.
Usually in the Yucatan, you see jungle and some villages filled with abborotes and huts like those shown in a previous post, but here I saw vast fields of produce and little prairie houses set back from the road (obviously a fundamental desire of certain building culture distinct from that inherited by the descendents of the Mediterranean and the Mayans, whose decendents build in much the same way as the Tuscans or the early New English). The mirage was only exacerbated by the apperance of two guerros in a little village otheriwse filled by people one wouldn't be so surprised to see in Mexican villages. They were also wearing overalls, something I haven't worn, or really seen, since I was 5 I think and Osh-Kosh-Begosh was still standard vocabulary with my mom in JCPenny. Anyhow, passing by one of these modern agricultural monliths and one of the Langfelsish little farmhouses mentioned above, I saw an ancient old ford pulling from a drive FULL of little blond kiddies and two guerros afront, and I knew I was no longer dreaming. So next abborotes me and my commrade stopped for some snacks and refreshment and I asked a local what was the deal down the road and here's the story: in the 1930s, there were all kinds of people who had reasons to leave Germany, and some of those were the Menonites, who's only interest in orders, new or old, was that of a well ployed field and a well worn family bible.And then there's Edzna, another city of ancient glory now lost to the Green Ocean but recently uncovered....
We had that place pretty much all to ourselves, only 40 minutes from the city of Campeche. Damn, I love looking around in Mexico. especially now that both the Swine Flu and tourism have slowed damn near to a halt.
\Edzna is also a great site, very unique. Look at those curves to the left! And all those little rooms on the face! Obviously there must have been some crazy light shows for the crowd in the Zocalo back in the day, as there are even now (only now for the tourists, and for a fee).
Pero, speaking of such events, I couldn't help but notice at Edzna the opposite/facing staircase/bleachers resmbled the Nurmberg Zepplin fields. I guess power generally manifests itself in casi the same ways in all kinds of places and times.
But we all know that shit ain't sustainable anymore.Sunday, July 5, 2009
Escenas Varias
Some things we saw along the way...
Celestun, in the Northwest corner of the Yucatan, is one of the handful of flamingo habitats in the world. Unfortunately I cannot reproduce here the awkward gawking sounds they make, which are about as humorous as their appearance.
And this is the vernacular mode of housing in most of the countryside. I'd imagine it hasn't changed much in a thousand years (metal ridge plate aside). All these huts have a few hammocks hanging inside from wall to wall, the preferred method of sleeping. It's a very simple, low impact way of living. And the purchase of wall space for political advertising was about as common as the huts themselves.
In the village of Cazuma, you can ride an old cart rail reminiscent of the final scenes in 'The Temple of Doom' with one horsepower 9 kilometers in the scrubby jungle to access 3 cenotes. There is only one rail, so needless to say we had to stop and pull the cart off the rail a number of times.
There are no rivers, creeks, or even streams in the whole northern sector of the Peninsula. It's one flat limestone sheet covered with scrub. All the freshwater in the Yucatan is pulled from Cenotes, natural pockets in the limestone. There are thousands of them.
And they make excellent swimming holes.
The village church of Cazuma, a typical example of the religious vernacular in the area. In particular, I liked looking at the sky through the holes in the facade made for the bells. The only natural light in the church comes from the main portal and the two transcepts (though they have unfortunately retrofit it with flourescent bulbs that are straight from the chicken processing plant). It is noticeably cooler inside.
In the nearby village of Holactun (I think) there is another site common to every pueblito in this area of the Yucatan - the abandoned Hacienda. These places conjure images of my impression of Sutpen's Hundred in it's wanning years.
The ruined grandeur of these agro-industrial complexes was built on an empire of sisal and a neo-feudal class structure. In a story so typical of single industry economies, the perference for synthetic fibers spelled the end of demand for sisal (which like hemp, was once used mostly for ropemaking) and the total abandonment of a way of living. Presently, the only thing that has served to replace this economy is tourism.
The church in Holactun is a great curio, which as you can see looks more fitting to the English countryside than the Yucatan. The only other place I've seen neo-Gothic religious architecture in Mexico is in the DF, where one would expect a degree of cosmopolitanism usually not found in the villages. I like to think there is some romantic explanation for this, which would no doubt be related to the Hacienda and a history fitting for a gothic novel.
Celestun, in the Northwest corner of the Yucatan, is one of the handful of flamingo habitats in the world. Unfortunately I cannot reproduce here the awkward gawking sounds they make, which are about as humorous as their appearance.
And this is the vernacular mode of housing in most of the countryside. I'd imagine it hasn't changed much in a thousand years (metal ridge plate aside). All these huts have a few hammocks hanging inside from wall to wall, the preferred method of sleeping. It's a very simple, low impact way of living. And the purchase of wall space for political advertising was about as common as the huts themselves. 
In the village of Cazuma, you can ride an old cart rail reminiscent of the final scenes in 'The Temple of Doom' with one horsepower 9 kilometers in the scrubby jungle to access 3 cenotes. There is only one rail, so needless to say we had to stop and pull the cart off the rail a number of times.
There are no rivers, creeks, or even streams in the whole northern sector of the Peninsula. It's one flat limestone sheet covered with scrub. All the freshwater in the Yucatan is pulled from Cenotes, natural pockets in the limestone. There are thousands of them.
And they make excellent swimming holes.
The village church of Cazuma, a typical example of the religious vernacular in the area. In particular, I liked looking at the sky through the holes in the facade made for the bells. The only natural light in the church comes from the main portal and the two transcepts (though they have unfortunately retrofit it with flourescent bulbs that are straight from the chicken processing plant). It is noticeably cooler inside.
In the nearby village of Holactun (I think) there is another site common to every pueblito in this area of the Yucatan - the abandoned Hacienda. These places conjure images of my impression of Sutpen's Hundred in it's wanning years. 
The ruined grandeur of these agro-industrial complexes was built on an empire of sisal and a neo-feudal class structure. In a story so typical of single industry economies, the perference for synthetic fibers spelled the end of demand for sisal (which like hemp, was once used mostly for ropemaking) and the total abandonment of a way of living. Presently, the only thing that has served to replace this economy is tourism.
The church in Holactun is a great curio, which as you can see looks more fitting to the English countryside than the Yucatan. The only other place I've seen neo-Gothic religious architecture in Mexico is in the DF, where one would expect a degree of cosmopolitanism usually not found in the villages. I like to think there is some romantic explanation for this, which would no doubt be related to the Hacienda and a history fitting for a gothic novel.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Campeche
Campeche, capital of the state of the same name, is a small city but with big appeal: some great buildings, the best (and cheapest seadfood) I've had anywhere in Mexico, and surprisingly exciting nightlife.
Like all sizable coastal Spanish colonial towns, Campeche used to the get attacked constantly by English and Dutch pirates. So they built a wall around the old center, some of which remains. Today, that wall keeps the quaintness inside and the hideous midcentury sprawl out.
The central plaza is flanked by double storey arcades and is dominated by it's baroque cathedral, which has some crazy structural things going on at it's transcept dome (retrofit, probably).
While the cathedral is not without it's merits, I was more found of the prosaic Yucatan vernacular church, an excellent example of which is found two blocks from the cathedral.
Also very interesting for me was the local contruction technique of arched vaults spanned by slnder wooden beams, a method which served both sacred and profane purposes.
The subtle details of the city should not be missed for it's extravagant use of various colors. For one thing, buildings get taller only at intersections, amplifying the urban experience. Also, the monotony of the architectural detailing is the counterpoint to the variation in the surfaces of color on not some, but EVERY building in the fabric.
Below is a combination of religious architecture and infrastructure I have not seen before: church as lighthouse.
In Campeche, as everywhere along the Gulf Coast of the Yucatan, there are NO waves bigger than a few inches. It's an uncanny site in my expereince, as even the much smaller Great Lakes have formidable waves. It's as though you are on the bank of some immeasurable river. Apparently it is a feature of it's very shallow incline (even hundreds of meters out, the water is barely over the head of a full grown man). This also explains the richness and the easy accessibility of the seafood. 
Like all sizable coastal Spanish colonial towns, Campeche used to the get attacked constantly by English and Dutch pirates. So they built a wall around the old center, some of which remains. Today, that wall keeps the quaintness inside and the hideous midcentury sprawl out.
The central plaza is flanked by double storey arcades and is dominated by it's baroque cathedral, which has some crazy structural things going on at it's transcept dome (retrofit, probably).
While the cathedral is not without it's merits, I was more found of the prosaic Yucatan vernacular church, an excellent example of which is found two blocks from the cathedral.
Also very interesting for me was the local contruction technique of arched vaults spanned by slnder wooden beams, a method which served both sacred and profane purposes.
The subtle details of the city should not be missed for it's extravagant use of various colors. For one thing, buildings get taller only at intersections, amplifying the urban experience. Also, the monotony of the architectural detailing is the counterpoint to the variation in the surfaces of color on not some, but EVERY building in the fabric.
Below is a combination of religious architecture and infrastructure I have not seen before: church as lighthouse.
In Campeche, as everywhere along the Gulf Coast of the Yucatan, there are NO waves bigger than a few inches. It's an uncanny site in my expereince, as even the much smaller Great Lakes have formidable waves. It's as though you are on the bank of some immeasurable river. Apparently it is a feature of it's very shallow incline (even hundreds of meters out, the water is barely over the head of a full grown man). This also explains the richness and the easy accessibility of the seafood. 
Calakmul
This entry and the few which will follow chronicle my journey with an old friend throughout the Yucatan peninsula. They are shown in no particular order, but for the whim with which I choose to upload them. This is only fitting, as we travelled around in no particular order in a cockamamy scheme to save money (although all that back-tracking actually completely upset whatever money we saved by flying to the 'cheap' airport from MC). Anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, with only minimal descriptions, which is no small task for me, as I tend to (and generally enjoy to) ramble.
Calakmul is a vast Mayan city in the southesat part of Campeche state kissing the border of Guatemala. Actually, it is the largest known Mayan site anywhere in Latin America. However, nearly all of it still covered by about a thousand years of accumulation of jungle, which adds up fast. Take for instance, the parasitic vine/tree shown above: it envelops and kills it's host, which then decays, leaving the unusual profile above.
The site also happens to be in the largest protected biosphere in Mexico, complete with monkeys, tucans, jaguars, and more. We only saw the monkeys though. Pictured above is a spider monkey. It's the best shot I have of them, as they move very quickly and hang out in the canopy. However, I must saw I captured this one's pelotas blancas perfectly. 
For all there aspirations to heavenly greatness, I think pre-Colombian architecture must rank among the great horizontal architectures of the world. That is, while there pyramids reached to the heavens, they were still very much in touch with the earth from which they drew there sustainence, at once in touch with the sun and the stars and the maize which completed the great cycle.
The steele which serve as introduction to nearly every significant edifice at the site are unique in my experience of the architectures of various Mexican cultures. Also, nature and time have created a very interesting situation here with the stepped arboretum, as steps usually look over open grounds. 
Of course, the GREAT pyramid of Calakmul. Every site has an alpha pyramid, but this one stands out amongst the others for it's size, it's well proportioned acropolis, and the view from it's summit.
Behold, the green ocean. Nothing but jungle for 60 kilometers in every direction.
The jungle stumps the pyramids, and the pyramids stump the man, always fighting for his own unique place in the natural world. Anyway, so long friend. I wish you all the best back at home.
Calakmul is a vast Mayan city in the southesat part of Campeche state kissing the border of Guatemala. Actually, it is the largest known Mayan site anywhere in Latin America. However, nearly all of it still covered by about a thousand years of accumulation of jungle, which adds up fast. Take for instance, the parasitic vine/tree shown above: it envelops and kills it's host, which then decays, leaving the unusual profile above.
The site also happens to be in the largest protected biosphere in Mexico, complete with monkeys, tucans, jaguars, and more. We only saw the monkeys though. Pictured above is a spider monkey. It's the best shot I have of them, as they move very quickly and hang out in the canopy. However, I must saw I captured this one's pelotas blancas perfectly. 
For all there aspirations to heavenly greatness, I think pre-Colombian architecture must rank among the great horizontal architectures of the world. That is, while there pyramids reached to the heavens, they were still very much in touch with the earth from which they drew there sustainence, at once in touch with the sun and the stars and the maize which completed the great cycle.
The steele which serve as introduction to nearly every significant edifice at the site are unique in my experience of the architectures of various Mexican cultures. Also, nature and time have created a very interesting situation here with the stepped arboretum, as steps usually look over open grounds. 
Of course, the GREAT pyramid of Calakmul. Every site has an alpha pyramid, but this one stands out amongst the others for it's size, it's well proportioned acropolis, and the view from it's summit.
Behold, the green ocean. Nothing but jungle for 60 kilometers in every direction.
The jungle stumps the pyramids, and the pyramids stump the man, always fighting for his own unique place in the natural world. Anyway, so long friend. I wish you all the best back at home.
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